Sweet Sicamous! Family makes gingerbread model of historic B.C. ship

It might not float, as the real SS Sicamous did during record-level flooding earlier this year, but a gingerbread model of the famous historical ship is a pretty sweet project.

Made by Bill and Corinne Driedger and Bill’s sister and brother-in-law Nettie and Herman Steuernagel, Bill said he estimates the project still has another 10 hours left — which he called “getting close.”

“I spent most of the day yesterday on it,” Bill said. “Whenever we get a chance, we poke away at it. We were trying to get it done before Christmas, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

Maybe not — especially if the couples dip too much into the eggnog.

“We did the Eiffel Tower a couple of years ago as a project, and we’ve been meaning to do another one, and since we did that in northern Alberta, I guess all four of us moved to Penticton,” Bill said, adding they floated the idea of doing the Sicamous last year.

“But we never got around to it with travel and whatnot. So today and this year we decided to tackle it. The sizing isn’t 100 per cent, but it’s just fun.”

Bill said it would have taken significantly longer to try to get everything to scale, but it isn’t a half-baked project, as it is. What might be the most challenging part coming up is the paddlewheel at the back of the steamship, something the team of bread-gineers (OK, that one might be a stretch) would have to tackle gingerly.

“I’m not sure how that’s going to happen,” he said.

Compared to the Eiffel Tower, Bill said the SS Sicamous has been a bit of a more complicated recipe.

“The Eiffel Tower’s so skinny, and we kind of just did it on a whim,” he said. “This guy, there’s a lot more going on trying to get it to look right.”

The cookies haven’t crumbled yet, but Bill said if a fatal mistake means sweet demise for the doughy ship, what remains is easily — and cheerfully — cleaned up.